Battery Park & The Statue of Liberty

Back in the early 1600s when New York was still called New Amsterdam, all the city was focused in this lower tip of Manhattan Island here, with the Hudson River running around to the west and the East River, of course, running around to the east. Then we have the Harbor Route here and eventually the ocean. So this was an extremely critical point to defend here. To their ends, they installed the battery of artillery right along the shoreline. That would eventually give the name to the park we're in now - Battery Park. Here in Battery Park, you have one of the best views you can get of the Statue of Liberty out there. She was installed in 1886 and was constructed by a French sculptor. And at the time, it was the highest structure in New York. The sculptor himself decided on the location on the island there so that she would welcome all the people arriving by boat to New York City. The Statue of Liberty, of course, is famous for her green color. But she actually started out life as brown. That's because she's made of copper sheets. When they were first exposed to the elements, they started to oxidize and that created this green patina on the surface. In the beginning, they thought this could be trouble. - thought all the copper was going to be eaten away. But on investigation, they found that this patina actually serves to protect the copper underneath.